


Jimmy Choo Choo

by rohkeutta



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Meet-Cute, Trains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 10:36:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12792780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rohkeutta/pseuds/rohkeutta
Summary: When they pull up in Newark, Buff Jeff wakes up with a jolt and Bucky is knee-deep in C++ and desperately in need of breakfast. Buff Jeff turns to look at him, a little bewildered, and Bucky looks back. It’s starting to get light outside, and Bucky is suddenly very aware of his crazy insomnia eyes and haphazard ponytail.“Um,” Buff Jeff says. He’s almost adorable with his sleepy eyes and awkward expression. “Oh. You’re-- um. Real.”





	Jimmy Choo Choo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mambo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mambo/gifts).



> My second Fandom Loves Puerto Rico ficlet, written for mambo. Thank you so much for bidding and donating!
> 
> Thanks to Helene and Fox for being test audience, and Alby for stellar beta read!

Bucky is three pages into his essay when he’s jolted out of it by a gruff voice asking, “D’you mind?”

Bucky moves his glasses and his beanie from the seat next to him without looking up, staring at the paragraph that’s giving him grief.

“Thanks,” the voice mumbles, and a buff guy slumps down next to him. Bucky’s glad for the wide seats, because he hates few things more than being squished against the window.

The guy fidgets a little, probably trying to find a comfortable sleeping position, and Bucky glances outside to check where the fuck they are. He has to squint a little to catch the sign before he gives up and puts his glasses on, suppressing a sigh. 

Baltimore, 3:54 a.m. He’s been on this train for all of forty minutes. 

Going down to D.C. to visit Sam is always fun, but Bucky wishes Sam would just graduate from Georgetown  _ a little faster _ and move back to NYC. The commute to see him likely wouldn’t be much quicker, but it would be hell of a lot cheaper.

“Can you turn down the brightness of your screen?” Buff Jeff next to him asks, and Bucky complies, concentrating on his paper again.

Fifteen minutes pass, Bucky typing away on his laptop. Then Buff Jeff says, “Do you  _ really  _ need to write a fucking novel right now?”

Bucky turns to look and just-- blinks a little. Buff Jeff is pretty as hell, even with the scowl and the bags under his eyes and the disheveled hair Bucky kind of wants to touch. He’s got a pair of those giant douchebag headphones around his neck, ridiculous muscles under his sweater, and the nicest eyelashes Bucky’s ever seen on a guy.

Bucky wants to pet him a little just to see if he’s real.

“Yeah,” Bucky says instead, because it’s fuck you o’clock in the morning, and he’s going through one of his insomnia cycles. “I want to finish it before we get to NYC. Put on your damn headphones and deal with it.”

Buff Jeff’s jaw tightens. “Can’t you just sleep like everybody else?”

“No,” Bucky says, turns back to his laptop and angles the screen so that Buff Jeff isn’t disturbed by the light. “I haven’t slept since Saturday. Get over it.”

Buff Jeff mumbles something about pissy assholes, but puts on his headphones and shifts so that his back is slightly turned towards Bucky. Bucky hopes he has nightmares.

Time passes slowly. Bucky gets in the zone now that Buff Jeff isn’t bothering him anymore and finishes his paper before they reach Philadelphia. Once he’s proof-read it, he gets bored out of his mind after ten minutes of solitaire and opens his programming homework that’s due in two weeks, because why the fuck not. He’s awake anyway.

When they pull up in Newark, Buff Jeff wakes up with a jolt and Bucky is knee-deep in C++ and desperately in need of breakfast. Buff Jeff turns to look at him, a little bewildered, and Bucky looks back. It’s starting to get light outside, and Bucky is suddenly very aware of his crazy insomnia eyes and haphazard ponytail.

“Um,” Buff Jeff says. He’s almost adorable with his sleepy eyes and awkward expression. “Oh. You’re-- um. Real. Sorry, I think I was kind of an ass earlier. It’s not my best hour.”

Bucky shrugs, waves his hand a little and takes the opportunity to save his code. “‘S fine, Jeff.”

“What?” Buff Jeff asks.

“Um,” Bucky says, his brain catching up. “Nevermind.”

Buff Jeff grins at that, scratching the back of his head. He’s really damn cute now that he’s not scowling. “It’s Steve, actually.”

“Steve,” Bucky repeats. “Huh. Buff Jeff rhymed better.”

“Buff Jeff?” Steve asks, now full-on grinning. It’s ridiculous. He’s ridiculous. Bucky wants to punch him in the mouth, maybe with his own.

“I’m insomniac,” Bucky says. “You shouldn’t use anything I say against me.”

“Fine,” Steve says, smirking, and checks Bucky out pretty blatantly. 

“I’m Bucky,” Bucky blurts at the same time as Steve says, “Hey, wanna get breakfast with me?”

They stare at each other. “Yeah,” Bucky says then, just as Steve says, “Bucky sounds better than Hot Geek.”

Bucky can feel how he’s slowly getting redder, but so is Steve. They’re a pair of morons. “Breakfast would be great,” Bucky says lamely. 

Steve fucking  _ beams. _ “Great!”

“Fucking  _ finally,” _ says the old woman sitting behind them. “Now shut the fuck up and let me sleep.”

\--

Steve kisses him for the first time that morning in front of Murray’s Bagels. He’s very warm and smells like cologne and Amtrak upholstery, and he walks Bucky to the subway station and kisses him again for a stupidly long time before going his way. 

Bucky stumbles his way onto the F train, falls asleep somewhere between Broadway-Lafayette St. and Delancey St. stations and misses his stop, making him late for class. 

He’s got Steve’s number and the promise of a second date, though, so he really doesn’t mind.

\--

Six months later Bucky’s dozing on the 3:15 a.m. Northeast Regional, when somebody moves his glasses and beanie from the other seat, sits down and leans in to press a kiss on Bucky’s ear. 

“Hi babe,” Steve murmurs. “Wave to my mom.”

Bucky opens one eye and waves sleepily at Steve’s mother, who’s smiling at them from the platform. Then he leans against Steve, trying to aim a kiss onto his mouth but catching his cheek instead, and mumbles, “You’re a good pillow, Buff Jeff.”

“And you’re an idiot, Buck,” Steve says fondly, but settles in like the excellent pillow he is, and lets Bucky fall back to sleep on him.

They get bagels for breakfast.

**Author's Note:**

> Once upon a time I told a coworker that I was gonna take the train from Boston to NYC and then NYC-DC-NYC when I went to the States on my summer holiday, and he said, "Are you sure it's a real train and not, like, a fake one? Isn't Amtrak like a cryptid or something?" Turned out that Northeast Regional was indeed a real train, and I enjoyed my trip immensely.
> 
> My tumblr is [here](http://rohkeutta.tumblr.com) in case you want to get freaky or browse a beautiful collection of shitposts and Bucky Barnes gifsets.


End file.
